Private spacecraft lost 300,000 km from Earth, fails to respond
Spacecraft of the new mission got lost in space at a great distance (youtube.com/NASA)
A spacecraft from the private mission by AstroForge lost communication some time after departing from Earth. The observation team reported that issues began during its journey, and the spacecraft is now lost somewhere in space, approximately 300,000 km away.
Here's what is known about this spacecraft and the problems the team encountered, according to IFL Science.
AstroForge launched its new spacecraft, Odin, aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The mission was ambitious: to send the spacecraft farther than any private mission before, flying past the Moon to reach asteroid 2022 OB5.
"Odin’s role is to gather critical imagery of the target asteroid, preparing the way for our next mission, Vestri, which will aim to land on the asteroid and begin extraction," the company explained.
In the long run, the team hopes to start mining platinum-group metals from asteroids, which are abundant in most space rocks.
The initial launch of Odin went smoothly - the spacecraft successfully separated from Falcon 9 and powered on. However, problems started soon after.
"As soon as the pass started, we ran into some massive issues. The wrong polarization was on the antenna, and we still have no idea why. We had already done a live on-site test, and the configuration file was correct. Yet, the polarization is wrong. This was wrong for about the first 4 hours of the mission," AstroForge reported.
Additionally, both communication channels were nonfunctional during the first four hours - no commands were received, and no data was transmitted.
The team was also unsure whether the power amplifier was turned on. Without it, they couldn't obtain any telemetry data from the spacecraft. Despite sending instructions from Earth to activate it, the signals did not go through.
The amateur satellite network AmSat detected a 13-second signal matching Odin’s transmission. However, by the time the team could analyze the data confirming that the spacecraft had booted up and the power amplifier was active, the satellite had already moved out of range.
"But we did know Odin was alive. This was also a huge clue; the batteries onboard the spacecraft can only support the spacecraft for about 2.5 hours. So if we got a signal about 7 hours into the mission, it means that the spacecraft must have received power from the sun and started to charge," the company stated.
Data analysis led the team to believe that Odin began drifting. Upon reviewing images, they found that the spacecraft was moving very slowly in space, though not slow enough to explain the complete loss of communication.
"We are trying to reach a spacecraft which at this point is 300,000 km [186,411 miles] away, it would block us from getting any actual signal from the spacecraft. Think of it like trying to hear a whisper in a room where someone is blasting music at full volume - it drowns everything else out," the team explained.
Unfortunately, contact with the spacecraft could not be re-established, as it continued to drift farther from Earth. However, the team is still making efforts and sees this mission as a valuable learning experience.
"At this point, Odin is still out there, and we are still trying to talk. Our current theory is that Odin is in a very slow rotation and that we will become power-positive again at a regular rate. While we can’t guarantee success, one thing is certain: we will keep learning, iterating, and taking shots on goal—because space is unforgiving, and you only get better by doing," AstroForge stated.
